A warning about a new substance found in a Central Ohio high school. It is called betel nut. It has been around for centuries in the South Asia but health officials said that it is being sold in some stores here under the name of Tursi.

The Bhutanese Community Leader Bhuwan Pyakurel said that, it is very much available in the Indian and Nepalese and Bhutanese stores.

The food inspectors recently found betel nut in one of the Reynoldsburg store. It is sold under different names. The inspectors made the employees throw all of it out. Betel nut is not a controlled substance but it is illegal to import. A school resource officer initially flagged it.

She had been called to the office to deal with the student that was out of sorts, was having trouble with their balance and also equilibrium, said the Reynoldsburg Police Chief Jim O’Neill.

It creates a high, but betel nut is also a carcinogen, linked to the various cancers. Franklin County Public Health is warning the law enforcement to be on the lookout.

University Of Akron To Host University of Mumbai Branch Campus

Police said that, they have caught several students at the Summit high school campus with the substance at school since the beginning of the school year.

“My biggest worry is my kids and the kids in my community first,” said Pyakurel.

Pyakurel also explains that betel nut is widely used in the South Asia but he said that the products sold here have added unknown chemicals, making the product even more dangerous.

Reynoldsburg police said they believe betel nut was imported, illegally, from the Nepal or India. About 12,000 immigrants from Nepal are living in the Central Ohio.

Police also said that young people ingest it by chewing it, much like the smokeless tobacco.

Pyakurel is starting in his city of Reynoldsburg, talking first with the police. He then plans to appeal to the city court.

Pyakurel plans to eventually talk with the state lawmakers. The health inspectors are visiting more international markets, trying to get all of the betel nut off the shelves.

Mrudula Duddempudi.